Nana Akua: There is no way Gavin Williamson should be knighted

When you hear the name Gavin Williamson, what springs to mind? Accident prone Frank Spencer perhaps in Some Mothers Do Have 'Em. If you are about my age or older you will remember it.

So when twice sacked Gavin Williamson, possibly the worst education secretary definitely in my lifetime, is offered a knighthood, you can’t help but question how on earth this has happened. Even with the most generous of intentions, there is no way that that man in my view is deserving of such an honour and to be honest, it brings the concept of a knighthood into disrepute.

If you think I’m being unfair...

His track record not only consists of a string of ridiculous childish gaffs, but his performance as an MP wasn’t much better.

Described by potty mouthed Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner as a 'prat" he was sacked as defence secretary by Theresa May after being blamed for leaking of top secret sensitive information on China about phone giant Huawei from the national security briefings– something he has always denied. It was doing this job where at the height of the Salisbury poisoning he infamously told Russia to "go away" and "shut up". Perhaps he could give that a go now..

In 2018 he risked a diplomatic row with France over the Syria conflict, by saying: "What is the point in listening to French politicians?"

Remember the disaster for schools during Covid? He left children to go hungry if it hadn’t been for the likes of Marcus Rashford who stepped in voluntarily to pressurise the government, God knows what would have happened.

To make matters worse Gavin then confused rugby star Maro Itoje, he thought he had been speaking to Marcus Rashford, who by the way only got an MBE for his efforts. It makes a mockery of the whole honours process.

Gavin Williamson created two years of complete chaos over exams.

He failed to get laptops out to kids struggling to learn during lockdowns and I can remember how he ignored the pleas from head teachers to shut down their schools due to covid staff illness and absences across the board, which saw him open schools for one day and then be forced to shut them the next.

Frankly his record is astonishing and disgraceful. So how on earth has this been allowed to happen..?

The key could lie in the fact that he was Boris Johnson’s campaign Manager and we’ve seen the damage that ex-employees can inflict, namely Dominic Cummings. The last thing Boris needs right now is another one of those

Munira Wilson, the Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman said:

“The only award Gavin Williamson should be given is the one for worst education secretary in history.

"People across the country will be outraged at this reward for his abysmal failures.

"It is an insult to every child, parent and teacher who struggled through Covid against the odds. It shows this government only cares about those at the top."

Williamson's timeline in office is a catastrophe. A knighthood for political and public service makes a mockery of the honour and frankly shouldn’t be allowed.

Arise Sir Gavin.